Archive for the ‘Iraq’ Category

It’s another sunny day in Stockholm. My wife called. We bet on the horses yesterday together with two friends. You should have seven winners. We had six and in the last race we had two horses. One, a favorite was judged disqualified during the race and the other became number two. That’s life.

They have a race track for flat racing in Baghdad. I remember 2004 when one horse was shot by a stray bullet during a race.

During the war 2003 all the horses owned by Saddam and his family were stolen. You could buy them for 3-400 USD. Fantastic Arabs worth hundred of thousands of dollars. Now you can see them transporting gas bottles in the cities.

The temperatures are now considerably lower in Iraq. My wife told me that it is like a Swedish day in summer. Really nice, not too hot.

There has been unrest in the province of Diyala. It’s not only Kirkuk that will be a problem. A Kurdish politician was shot dead by Iraqi Police when he entered a Police station with the aim to solve an arrested colleague’s problem.

Sounds dramatic. There has already been unrest in Khanaqin an oil rich town with a mixed population. Most of the Kurds there are Shia while most of the Kurds are Sunni.

Could be, but Iraq and especially these part are like the Wild West. They are border towns with Iran. It means opportunities, smuggling, and business. They were subjects for Saddam’s Arabisation campaign during the 80: ies. Meaning that Kurds where forced to move to Iran or in other directions inside the country. The power balance between tribes has been destroyed or changed dramatically after 2003. The central power that should be Baghdad has been weak. The respect for Police, Officials et c has been low. And finally there is money to make.

I remember the Mayor. He lived in Germany for many years. An intelligent and witty Kurd with a good portion of sarcastic humor.

In the Erbil province you have to have permission to build a house. It is not only in Erbil that rule is a formula A1. I think it’s like that all over the world. I mean you can not build a house were you like.

So the Mayor told some people that they could not start without permission. But they belonged to a family that regarded itself as standing above the law. One day the Mayor sent three bulldozers and destroyed their houses. He told another person that had the same idea that he wanted to talk with him about his plans. So when speaking to that man at his office suddenly twenty armed friends to that man turned up and “released” the villager.

At another occasion when the Mayor wanted to talk to some scatters that was occupying an area. They started shooting at him. He still has a scar at the side of his head.

So it is very hard to know if they facts really are facts or just dreams. People lie because they want fantastic things to happen and they seldom do.

This is why you always hear about all those projects in Iraq. As a westerner you always have to remind yourself that we have corruption and assholes in Europe to.

The thing is we can afford corruption in Europe. It is not acceptable and must be fought but it will not violate the entire society. But in Iraq it’s another story. They can not afford corruption because their entire society is built on corruption, embezzlement and lawless behavior. Normally you would be upset if the police shout an elected politician. But you never know what is behind the story. This is how far it went.

I saw an Iraqi politician, female, A MOP on television asked about the development in Iraq. It was in connection with the channel running Corbins documentary at Swedish television. I suppose she was not with Al-Maliki because she had two messages. First that all in the government were thieves and criminals and the Americans did not do enough. Please, I am one hundred percent with John McCain that there were mistakes made, fundamental ones. I saw them with my own eyes and I think they were partly intentional. But in Iraq there’s an attitude that somebody else should do this or that. The Americans, Allah or a new strong man or there are even those that wish for Saddam to came back from the dead.

Why doesn’t the Iraqis put them selves together and build a country that they could be proud of for a change.

Skip that “somebody must” bullshit!

Somebody is the Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and the Turcomans in Iraq.

About the horses? Yes, well it’s easier to find the seventh horse than to find seven Iraqis that have the same story to tell.